ARC Review: The Cemetery Boys by Heather Brewer

Title: The Cemetery Boys
Author: Heather Brewer
Genre: Mystery, Thriller, Paranormal 
Source: Edelweiss
Publisher: HarperTeen
Publication Date: March 30th 2015
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Summary: 

When Stephen is forced to move back to the nowhere town where his father grew up, he’s already sure he’s not going to like it. Spencer, Michigan, is like a town straight out of a Hitchcock movie, with old-fashioned people who see things only in black-and-white. But things start looking up when Stephen meets the mysterious twins Cara and Devon. They’re total punks–hardly the kind of people Stephen’s dad wants him hanging out with–but they’re a breath of fresh air in this backward town. The only problem is, Cara and Devon don’t always get along, and as Stephen forms a friendship with the charismatic Devon and something more with the troubled Cara, he starts to feel like he’s getting caught in the middle of a conflict he doesn’t fully understand. And as Devon’s group of friends, who hang out in a cemetery they call The Playground, get up to increasingly reckless activities to pass the summer days, Stephen worries he may be in over his head. Stephen’s fears prove well-founded when he learns of Spencer’s dark past. It seems the poor factory town has a history of “bad times,” and many of the town’s oldest residents attribute the bad times to creatures right out of an urban legend. The legend goes that the only way the town will prosper again is if someone makes a sacrifice to these nightmarish creatures. And while Stephen isn’t one to believe in old stories, it seems Devon and his gang might put a lot of faith in them. Maybe even enough to kill for them. Now, Stephen has to decide what he believes, where his allegiances lie, and who will really be his friend in the end.

Review 

The Cemetery Boys was wonderfully dark and mysterious. It is a book that will leave you up into the late hours of the night needing to know how it will end. Forget about sleep, because this book is creepy as hell! 

When Stephen's dad loses his job and has to move back to the small town he left years before, Stephen thinks it is the end of the world. Maybe it is. Then he meets a cute girl named Cara, her brother Devon and a bunch of their friends and he begins to believe that life in Spencer may be a little less miserable. But after hanging out at the cemetery and drinking with the guys a few times Stephen learns about the creatures that the town believe in and that they are going through bad times, and the only way to end them is to sacrifice someone. Though he believes there are just myths, maybe something more in going on. Life in Spencer isn't what it would appear to be. 

I have never been a fan of stories told solely from the male point of view, it have never been able to get into them into them as I am with a female protagonist. But Stephen was different. He didn't feel fake to me. Heather has a real talent in writing in the male point of view. He was a typical boy, with the sarcastic inner monologue, and thinking about getting with a pretty girl. Especially the pressure doing and not doing. All a pride thing. It was refreshing to read from the male point of view and I was actually able to stick with it. 

Devon was just strange to me, his drawings, how he stood outside of Stephen's grandmother's house one of his first nights there. There was something so off about that boy, and the whole book I expected one outcome with him and it didn't happen. Cara on the other hand, she was the opposite of her brother. I loved her character, and every scene she was in. She balanced out Stephen nicely, understanding the things that happened with his mother back home. 

The story started out a bit slow to me, eventually it picked up though and I couldn't help but devour it. The Winged Ones was an awesome addition to the overall plot. Especially that it raises the question whether they were real or not. Then the ending hits you. The last 50 pages or so were thrilling. There were people involved in this that I never would have imagined to be. I was utterly shocked and upset because I thought it was going to turn out different. After the climax of the story though, you realize that there may have been truth about these urban legends told through out Spencer. 

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